| The cattle tick Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus causes several damages to susceptible cattle. Generally its control is based on chemical products. However, this is not being easy nowadays because of the acquiring resistance they have been developing towards the active principles that are available against it. The knowledge about tick enemies is interesting because of the potential of biological control. We observed that lizards from Tropidurus torquatus species were strongly attracted and have been eating engorged and semiengorged Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus tick. We put about 100 ticks over a flat cement surface and we filmed and took photos of those lizards eating ticks. In a filming of 8 minutes of duration we could see three lizards that were attracted to the surface where the ticks were put on: one ate two, the second ate seven and the third ate none. So, nine ticks were eaten in eight minutes, a little more than one tick per minute, which demonstrates the voracity of this species to this tick. The facilities where 20 adult cattle (10 Holstein black and white, 2 Brown Swiss and 8 Nelore) are maintained (confinament, stalls, a cattle chute, and a cattle scale) are located at Animal Science Institute in Nova Odessa city, State of São Paulo, Brazil. The observation of many of these lizards crossing the facilities is common. This lizard species which measures about 20 cm long is widely spread since southwest Brazil to the north of Argentina. Its diet is based on vagile arthropods, especially ants, and some vegetables, including fruits. After a review of this subject we verify that this is the first news about the predation of Tropidurus torquatus on Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus tick. We thank Professor Miguel Trefaut Urbano Rodrigues (Instituto de Biociências, Dept. of Zoology/USP-SP) for helping with the lizard identification. |
